Baltimore City’s and Montgomery County’s school systems are in jeopardy of losing funding due to unmet requirements under the state’s preeminent education plan, the . At a meeting Thursday, the Blueprint Accountability & Implementation Board voted to officially warn the two school systems that they have not complied with certain criteria that would warrant the board’s approval to release fiscal years 2025 and 2026 Blueprint funds. “We do have to make certain we abide by the terms and conditions in our statute to make sure that we get compliance in a timely fashion,” said board chair Isiah Leggett.
“We also try to work very carefully with all the jurisdictions that we are as responsive and responsible as possible to get to a positive outcome for everyone in terms of compliance. Unfortunately, there are some that are still not at that level and some are close to it, and so we need to at this point and time consistent with statutory requirements make some distinctions here.” Each Maryland school system had to provide an implementation plan to the board, a government entity charged with overseeing the execution of the Blueprint.
Baltimore City and Montgomery County haven’t provided all of the components of their implementation plans, according to the board, including Baltimore’s career ladder. After multiple rounds of negotiations over specifics in the teacher career ladder, the Baltimore Teachers Union and the school system ahead of a state deadline, and form.